In the beginning of the year, the #noestimates movement gained some attention and traction in the software development world. It’s an interesting position, with some strong arguments in its favor — but personally I find it to be entirely development-focused and that it ignores the business and customer realities that we as Product Managers must wrangle with every single day.

Of course, most Product Managers don’t approach estimates in the right way, so it’s no wonder that developers feel that their time and effort is being wasted. But the answer isn’t to dispose of estimates altogether, but rather to ensure that they’re being obtained and used in appropriate ways.